Menu
CB Wedding and Party Wedding Photography

The good, the bad, and the ugly - discover what customers are saying about Wedding Photography

Welcome to our customer reviews and complaints page for Wedding Photography. We understand that making informed decisions about where to invest your time and money can be challenging, which is why we've created this platform for our community to share their honest feedback about their experiences with Wedding Photography.

On this page, you'll find a comprehensive collection of reviews and complaints from real customers who have used Wedding Photography's products or services. Our reviews are authentic and unbiased, providing you with a complete picture of the company, its products or services, and their customer service.

Whether you're considering doing business with Wedding Photography, or you've already had an experience with them, our community's reviews and complaints will give you a valuable perspective on what to expect. Our goal is to help you make informed decisions about where to invest your time and money, and we hope that our platform will be a valuable resource for you.

Please feel free to browse our reviews and complaints and share your own experience with Wedding Photography. Your feedback is an important part of our community and will help others make informed decisions.

ComplaintsBoard
W
1:16 am EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Wedding Photography dont give us what we have paid for

We booked our weeding package with Lauren Joy Photography more than 1 year in advance. We had two meeting were we specified we wanted full colour and spot colour ONLY. We then received an email (after the wedding) stating our photos and package will be ready in 6-12 weeks. 15 weeks later we received a disc with some of our photos, when our package said ALL photos. Our photos are in colour, black & white and strange 'effects' that we did not want or ask for. These 'effects' can NOT be printed b/c the turn out grainy, etc. We approached Lauren Joy about this and was told our contract says black & white OR colour and we did not specify. We emailed her back requesting the 'effects' in colour, and she said the contract now says colour, Black & white or special effects, and it will $2.20 per photo if we want tp convert it back to the original colours. Furthermore, we still have not received the rest of our package (prints and DVD slideshow with music, or the rest of our pictures). This is the WORST post event service DO NOT use Lauren Joy Photography, she will try and rip you off after the event!

Read full review of Wedding Photography and 3 comments
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
3 comments
Add a comment
C
C
carls2
Banora Point, AU
Dec 15, 2011 9:17 am EST

I think that this is completely wrong, rude and a down right lie! I have used Lauren joy photography so many times over the past 5 years and have found Lauren herself and her support staff nothing but reliable, honest and a hardworking professional and a complete leader in her profession. I myself provide services for brides and continue to recommend Lauren to not only brides but also families, couple and expectant parents for maternity and newborn shots as well. On my wedding day we had Lauren give us 100% and have photos that give me goosebumps to look at and i often play my dvd as
'background" music and often find myself and whoever is around mesmerized by what she has done. Lauren in all honesty was my support on the wedding day with a simple "don't worry babe" at every time it was needed from first thing till the very end. Knowing she had so many hours of wedding experience under her belt gave me the confidence to have fun with her and really relax. Our bridal party even got in trouble because we were away at our photos too long. woops to much champagne and great company! I can not recommend Lauren highly enough and if you don't believe my words see for yourself! I am sorry you and your husband feel that you are in some way unhappy with what you got everyone is entitled to an opinion, however i am nearly 100% sure you are the only married couple disappointed with your result from Lauren.

R
R
ReeseMarie
Sunnybank, AU
Dec 14, 2011 8:51 pm EST

I am in 100 percent agreement with MZR34. Lauren has been nothing but amazing with me and my family. We have used her for our engagement and wedding pictures where we got everything we asked for and more. More recently she has shot my maternity and newborn shots as well. I live in brisbane and travel to the gold coast for the specific task of having Lauren take my pictures. I wont go to anyone else. To the person making the complaint I would also like to point out that while searching for a wedding photographer I never found anyone willing to do an engagement shoot for FREE and more to the point show me a photographer that gives you everything Lauren gives you for less that $4000. If you want extra work after the fact then you should pay for it and any other photographer you book with will expect exactly the same thing. I can wait until my newborn hits 6 months old because I for one can't wait to see Lauren again!

M
M
MZR34
Gold Coast, AU
Dec 13, 2011 6:00 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I find this post rather amusing and to be honest, quite disrespectful. I have used Lauren's services numerous times, including my recent wedding and engagement shoot, and have only the highest praises for her work ethic and the quality of the images we received. We booked our wedding 18 months ago, and our contract stated that we would receive images in black and white, colour and with special effects, which is exactly what we received. A lot of work goes into the post production of any wedding images, no matter who the photographer is and so I think it is quite fair and understandable that she would charge you to make any further changes - Not only would she have to convert the b&w images back to colour, all new retouching would have to be done as well. I think it is quite safe for me to assume that yourself and your partner would under no circumstances work for free, so I am slightly annoyed that you would expect someone else to do so, especially when (assuming you had actually read your contract before signing) the work provided to you was exactly what you paid for!
As for your statement that you didn't receive everything you paid for, I can also safely say that you would be the only person this has happened to - Many of Lauren's clients have been referrals from myself/my partner and everything has always been up to scratch as Lauren values her reputation and will go above and beyond to ensure total client satisfaction. At the risk of being too straight forward, I suggest that you stick your head back in the sand where it belongs and stop trying to cause trouble for honest, hard working people purely because you were too lazy/ignorant to understand what you were paying for in the first place.
I will VERY happily book with Lauren again, and am looking forward to our next project together.

ComplaintsBoard
D
8:03 pm EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Wedding Photography DO NOT USE THIS PHOTOGRAPHER

Unprofessional and rude, no customer service. We signed a reasonably priced contract only to have them spring costs that were mandatory but not included in the contract. She would not have our input in our own album and made us sit in her studio for 14hours.The photographer was making inappropriate comments and lewd remarks to our guests.Pay the extra money and go somewhere else. Serendipity's photos may look good, but it is not worth the heartache. 2 of our friends have had the same experience.

Read full review of Wedding Photography and 25 comments
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
25 comments
Add a comment
S
S
Selangor
, US
Nov 19, 2016 10:37 pm EST

Sally Newell, you were never a nice person and I can remember how rudely you shouted at and upbraided those people who volunteered their time to help you with your RMIT photography project mentioned in my above posting. But I expected that you would improve over the years, not turn out to be the monster described in these pages. What is the point of earning more dollars at the expense of other people's wrenching heartache, tears and frustrations? Even if you have no conception of karma, surely you possess some basic human decency? You remind me of the degradation of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, turning from hobbit into a disgusting, lizard-like creature driven by only one unhealthy passion. If you could only photograph your own greedy, selfish and rapacious soul, you would see for yourself what you have become. I got ripped off by you thirty years ago (see my posting above) and I've never forgotten even though it was a relatively small matter. Let us hope that you do not expect all these couples to forgive and forget what you did to them. Let us also hope that you R.I.P. when the darkness eventually engulfs you.

S
S
Selangor
, US
Nov 19, 2016 7:42 pm EST

Reading all this hate against Sally brings me back to the time when I was ripped off by her decades ago while she was still studying photography at RMIT. I spent half a day helping her with a photography project after she promised to do a portrait of me in exchange. She took many shots of me and showed me the thumbnails from which I selected one that she promised to print out to a large size. Next thing I knew, she had left for NZ without leaving me anything, not even a single thumbnail image, although I later heard that she used my photos for another project of hers, without my permission. She seems to have gotten much worse over the years from the shocking accounts here. I can only feel sorry for all those who have suffered far more horribly at her hands.

G
G
GNNed
, AU
Mar 22, 2016 2:46 am EDT

Oh my god. I feel physically ill and like bursting into tears after reading all of these shocking reviews, albiet 5 years too late! The exact same thing happened to us, only we paid 8k for a wedding album full of images that were mostly picked by Sally (after sitting in the studio for 12 hours picking our own), a heap if pooly edited images that I think an iphone filter would do a better job, and a wedding video (this is where I literally choke back tears) that has entirely been filmed OUT OF FOCUS. The whole video is blurry. I spend 18 months trying to get my album and images, I didn't even bother with the video as there was absolutely no way of saving it - the only option would be to get married all over again! I could go on for hours about all the horrendous things that happened but most reviews cover my story! The only good to come of this, actually the reason I am now writing a review after coming across this feed, is because i drove past there today for the first time since the last time I walked out of there in tears, and they are CLOSED DOWN. One or all can only hope they are completely and utterly bankrupt. Please Karma, now is their time...for a very long time!

R
R
Rory Schouw
, US
Aug 12, 2015 7:28 pm EDT

Has anyone had any success with these people? As my experience was exactly the the same!

We agreed on the initial contract before the wedding. After the the wedding we sat for 12hrs plus selecting photos we liked when Sally then told us well we would then have to pay a substantial amount more... And when we trying to reduce the photos she proceeded with what I can only describe as emotional blackmail, which worked on my wife and drove me to an almost overwhelming state of anger.
We then left and did not return for a few months and when we returned they continued to employ the same tactics.
They also decided to change the album size and basically conned us into signing a new contract at an inflated price.

After we had paid, they informed us that we will be receiving our photos by December last year. We only just received it this August. And they had the nerve to tell us that there was a pick up fee of $1000! Not only that but didn't even have everything that we had paid for, and now still waiting for the parent albums.

Anyone thought of bringing this forward to A Current Affair?

S
S
Scout Dexter
Melbourne Metro Area, AU
Jun 14, 2013 6:31 pm EDT

Hi,

I also had a very similar experience with them. I believe there is a new Australian Consumer Law of 2010 which has stricter rules and benefits the consumer and am looking in to it. Their contract is arguable as well. Would you guys want to email me on scoutdex@gmail.com.

Scout.

F
F
Factual007
Melbourne, AU
Apr 07, 2013 12:59 pm EDT

Please read all these reviews carefully and realise that this is what happens to many people. There is probably so many more that have had this happen but have not placed a review. My partner and I experienced all of the same things that many of these reviews state. I will list the key important points: You will enter in to an agreement which you can afford. You will have a pre-shoot day (if chosen) and wedding day where lots of photos are taken. You will have an album planning day where you can supposedly choose the photos you want in your album. This will be a waste of a day, because in the end they will scrap most of your selections and go with there own random selections anyway. Now this is the most important thing that you will be most disappointed about. The lack of control that you will have in the photo selection and album. We personally feel sick every time we think about it, the album could have been so much better if they responded to our requests to have more time or a better selection process of the photos. Our album has nice photos but is ruined with randomly selected photos that we don't like. You will be treated rudely at every step of the way by the main person you deal with. You will be forced into paying 2-3 times more than you initially wanted to, because otherwise you will miss a lot of the photos that you spent a whole day trying to select. If and when you get your album
(we got ours after many re-scheduled appointments and 8 months later) you will have such a bad taste and memory of the experience and frustration that you will never enjoy your photos. Sure there is some nice photos, but not good enough to make all the frustration, rudeness and feeling of being held ransom worthwhile. Please try to find another photographer if possible, you may save yourself some major disappointment for what should be a happy experience. And worst still you will pay premium rates for it. If so many people have gone though the same process and feel so badly about it and nothing has changed after many years, then this company has serious customer service issues, in an industry that really should be all about the service.

S
S
Serendipity_Criminals
Melbourne Metro Area, AU
Jul 04, 2012 7:44 pm EDT

Unfortunately I discovered these threads after committing several deposits to Serendipity. It was only after a photography associate of mine that asked who we were using for our wedding and then advised that their reputation in the industry was quite horrid.

None the less, we persisted with the knowledge of what to expect and pretty much experienced everything that people above have mentioned.

Julian, the photographer is more than capable of creating amazing shots and his talent is not questionable. He’s a little bit quirky and artsy but he conducted his job without a problem. His wife, Sally, on the other hand is a detriment to human evolution. You could simply call her a white collar criminal but criminal is probably the least offensive word you could associate with her.

We screened about 5-6 wedding photography places that had a presence in media/expos etc. The quality of the photos that were shown to us by Serendipity was great and they had the usual glossy brochures with what appears to be simple packages at a reasonable price. This is where the fun ends.

Upon booking the job and deciding we were going to use them it was a matter of meeting Sally and planning times, style etc. Despite finding Sally incredibly rude within about 5minutes, we persisted in the knowledge that she isn’t the one taking the photos. We signed a contract which had writing scrawled all over it, however we knew exactly what was written down and the end product expected.

The wedding occurred, photos were taken, everything fine.

The initial appointment to see Sally and pick photos to be used in the album etc, we turned up and was told that she had no idea that we had an appointment. Also, her child was sick with chickenpox or some other random disease. She seems to use her children or house renovations as a generic excuse judging by previous posters as we got the house renovations excuse on another occurrence. Perhaps when you look like a bag of ### all the time, you have some practice to fine-tune good solid excuses for looking something in between homeless and a war-torn refugee.

After rebooking an appointment and coming back she then commenced her usual ‘try and drain the customer for 12 hours’ strategy. We were basically told that all these photos in the album which we agreed on were going to cost extra and I quote, “I can’t do an album for that price.” Her next move was to present another contract and then asking us to sign it. Of course, with a whole bunch of additional costs to what was supposed to be standard. An illegal act and at that point we walked out and told her to get stuffed. From what I could understand she wanted to sell wedding packages…photos not included. So for several thousands dollars, at that point we might have got a blank album. Bargain.

Prior to the blow-up, the photo selection process consisted of Sally showing us all the photos taken, half heartedly asking us which ones we liked and proceeding to just pick the ones she wanted anyway. She had a ‘vision’ for what things should look like and any input received was discarded and we were quickly reminded that she is very educated, has a degree and was a lead designer of the NASA space shuttle, amongst other things. The only problem being, she’s a dim-witted idiot who can’t navigate her way around Photoshop, lacks any efficiency in her production methods and more than likely suffers from a yet-to-be-discovered mental disorder.

Several yelling matches later and giving her every opportunity for her to make an intelligent decision on anything whatsoever, we sought legal approaches and basically ‘got ### done.’

I do feel sorry for Julian because the business could quite easily stand on its own merit and run like any other legal entity, minus his wife.

Their company over-commits to work, due to the outstanding amount of fake positive reviews floating around the internet. Just stop and have a read of them and then think if you would ever write something as follows;

“We're totally overwhelmed by our wedding album. The shots are breathtaking and everything we hoped for and more. The attention to detail and wonderful colours really stand out in the album. Our most intimate moments were captured perfectly by Julian on the day, giving us an album that we love to look at over and over again. Julian's use of the location was incredible and his ability to capture the mood and feeling both of the location and us as a couple is what makes our album stand out from others that I have seen.”

Holy generic review Batman.
Either the assistant they hire writes all these up regularly or there is a paid-for-comment company on the books who keeps everything updated.
Oh, look, every review on brideadviser is matched with a 9/9 people found this review helpful. Really? Every single one? Amazing!

My advice to anyone dealing with them is, in order of preference:
1. RUN for the hills. If you haven’t committed to anything, just avoid. No amount of photos is worth the pain you will need to endure.
2. If you are committed, make sure you know EXACTLY what you are signing for and what things cost BEFORE the day.
3. At the first hint of disagreement, don’t get bullied or cave in to demands. It is hard being emotionally cornered on such a special day but it’s no excuse for criminal activity.
4. Don’t be afraid to seek legal advice. Sally’s lack of organisational skills is too void for her to ever mount a defence on being a con artist.
5. Distribute any bad dealings with them to as many people as possible. I am quite amazed they are still trading. The more people that stick it back to them, the less likely some other poor couple is going to have to deal with something that should be a pleasant experience.

Nearly a year later, we finally have the albums, the photos and everything that was supposed to be there in the first place. The ordeal was simply not worth it.

Karma works in strange ways sometimes and eventually it will catch up with someone so void of simple human emotions such as compassion, honesty, morality. I’d be looking three times before crossing the road if I was in her shoes because there’s a well overdue fast moving object with her name written all over it.

S
S
sallyhater
, AU
Mar 17, 2012 12:12 am EDT

oh my...I am so glad that i found this thread. I found the owner Sally so very strange. I could not understand her bloody jargon and she made us sign all sorts of things. The only thing that was positive was the photos were lovely but obviously not worth the stress and heartache of what is above. I wish i had seen this before I signed.

D
D
disgruntledandunimpressed
Melbourne, AU
Feb 10, 2012 2:03 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

It seems their service is atrocious for everyone. Whilst my story seems to be similar to everyone else's I might as well repeat it, another voice added just makes our screams louder.
My husband and I ended up choosing this company as they were slightly cheaper than another who had a similar photography style and albums, my how I wish we had gone with the 'more expensive' company, because we ended up being held to ransom at a much higher price.
I believe our original cost was around the 2.5-3k mark. The amount of photos seemed substantial and we believed we could easily place them within the stated page limit. Luckily for us we didn't have Sally as our photographer - and we loved the guy we had. When our videographer asked who our photographer was he shook his head and warned us, he said that they were notorious in the wedding circle, having changed their company name many times to avoid litigation. Unfortunately we had already put down 50% of the fee, and as we were paying for our entire wedding ourselves, and recently bought our first home, we believed we couldn't afford to lose the money - we SHOULD HAVE FLED.

On the day we were told to come in and choose the photos, the photos weren't even up! We waited hours just to see the photos. Then after selecting an amount that was 75% less than what the contract stated we could pick Sally, dressed in filthy tattered clothing with horrific BO - told us that the new price was going tobe around 8k because of all the 'extra' pages. You see, the contract doesn't state that Sally is allowed 'artistic licence', which to her means putting 1-3 photos on PER PAGE. She also then mentions that any background image used (out of your selected images) is charged per page! If you don't pay then all your photos are printed on a white background. As most people said, this is why you end up being in her studio for 15hours + - she REFUSES to make the album any way but her way, so suddenly the 750-1200 odd photos you were allowed to have in our contracts in her hands ends up with a massive photobook costing 3x what you agreed on.
We managed to stay calm and try to reason with her and ask to put more photos on per page, but there is no REASONING with a maniac and a criminal.
At one point she actually threatened, and I quote 'IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF THE COMPUTER CRASHED AND ALL OF YOUR PRECIOUS WEDDING PHOTOS WERE LOST FOREVER'.
I have never wanted to physically harm another human being in my entire life, but at that moment I had to restrain myself from beating her to death with a paperweight. IT became horrifyingly clear that she would stop at no length to get the extra money she wanted. So the next day I returned with my father who is an attorney and we managed to get the cost down to 5k with the original amount of photos we wanted. Despite the contract being a laugh my father warned me that with someone like Sally, who had already closed shop a million times, it wasn't worth risking our photos to try to take legal action.
The reason they are still in business is because even once you get your photos, if you do try to shut them down, all of those other couples whose photos they have will never see them, and despite our intense hatred for this despicable miscreant, we couldn't risk those other innocent people's photos.
The only thing you can do is spread the word to anyone you know is getting married to STEER CLEAR.
Once we got the album (a lifetime later, due to a supposed parental death etc), like the person above, it wasn't even a week before it bubbled and deteriorated, I can't even bring myself to look at it anymore and there is no point asking her to re do it, you'd be waiting til your deathbed.

DO NOT USE THIS CRIMINAL COMPANY!

S
S
SallySucks
, SE
Feb 04, 2012 1:37 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I am surprised Serindipity is still in business. My wife and I went through the same issues as everyone else, so it seems to be their business model. Show you artistic photos, and a decent price structure, and then hold you to random with your wedding photos, and make you sick and tired at 3am until you through in the towel and pay more.

It is not really about the money, is the fact that there are human beings as low as "Sally" that cannot be honest in life, and choose to torment people instead.

On the day that we where choosing the photos to be put in the album (i.e. being held to ransom) a couple had some in, and left crying after they had been though 4+ months of drama AFTER they got their album because Sally was some cheap printing factory that delivers 2nd grade quality goods. Even our album developed bubbles etc after only a couple of months, and this is after paying more for an air sealed case for it.

If anyone is googling this BEFORE they use this company, thank god you have found this. RUN FOR THE HILLS, and tell all of your friends before they get married too! Even if the photos are offered to you for FREE, it IS NOT WORTH IT. Having a ### at your wedding, and having them own the copywrite to your special day is not fun.

This all happened over 3 years ago and I personally still cannot get over it.
Sally, if you are reading this, and I know you are because you have posted above 3 or so times with "fake reviews". Is it all worth it? Is your white collar crime worth it? Is the extra 50% you scam off every customer worth it? What if one of your customer crack one day, and kidnap your kid and hold you to random?

Sally your heart is black and I only wish that one day you will redeem yourself...but I know that this will never happen and I ashamed that I was born to be apart of the same race as you. You are the cancer in this world and one day, karma will come back to it will do much worse then bite you in your fat ###.

ComplaintsBoard
D
7:25 am EST

Wedding Photography Nightmarish Service

I don't know where to begin. When my wife and decided to go with TW we knew we were paying a lot of money for their services(over $4,000.00). We figured if we pay a little extra we should be getting the better service and product. We were dead wrong. The product was excellent and our photography was fabulous, but the service was God awful. After our wedding we had to meet with TW numerous times and at those meetings we had a different "Consultant", and everytime we went in these "Consultants" said that they were our "Consultants". Every consultant we had never knew what we wanted. We had to explain ourselves and everything we wanted and what we were suppose to get to each consultant. They always seemed confused. No one took notes. No one seemed to know what was going on. Here's a small list of things they did wrong: Lost our personal check, got a picture wrong in our promotional 5x7 set and did not offer to mail it to us once it was completed (they wanted us to drive out there to get-25 miles-for a 5x7), put a wrong picture into our album that suspiciously is whited-out on our proof sheet and the number that is written over it doesn't match my wife's hand writing, misspelled my wife's name after numerous attempts telling them not to spell it wrong, and finally, telling you they are gonna deliver your wedding album and not; three times. It was an overall hassle and would not recommend using them. I was tired of hearing apologies and truly believe that they really don't give a damn. In conclusion, they are too expensive and the service is the worst. I would never recommend anyone to use TW. As far as I'm concerned we never did business with them.

Read full review of Wedding Photography and 1 comment
Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
S
S
Sara
,
Jun 10, 2008 1:57 pm EDT

I could not agree more with this complaint! Timothy Whaley was the worst experience of my wedding. I was married over 11 months ago and am still trying to get my album from them. Their service is HORRIBLE. Both me and my friend used them for weddings last year and have come to completely regret it. In the meantime, I have had numerous friends spend much less and get 1000 times better service. Everytime, you deal with a different person making minimum wage who is probably going to work there for less than 3 weeks - then it starts all over again with someone else. They definitely seem to think that people are going to come out to Lisle to pick up photos all the time - someone might want to tell them it is ridiculously far. Please whatever you do - don’t use them for your wedding. It isn’t worth all the free promotions they promise you because in the end it is such a hassle to even get them - if you do. Stay away from Timothy Whaley!

Elevating the Voice of the Consumer

Empowering Real Complaints

At ComplaintsBoard, we understand the impact of genuine consumer grievances. Our platform is a dedicated space for authentic voices, where complaints, both positive and negative, are shared with honesty and transparency.

Dedicated to Validating Complaints

We are committed to ensuring the authenticity of every complaint. Our team uses rigorous verification methods to confirm that each complaint stems from a real customer experience, maintaining the integrity of our platform.

Encouraging Detailed Complaint Narratives

We value complaints accompanied by concrete evidence. Be it a photo, a detailed narrative, or additional documentation, such substantiation lends credibility to your complaint, aiding others in making informed decisions.

Balanced and Constructive Dialogue

ComplaintsBoard is more than a platform for airing grievances; it's a community where balanced dialogue is encouraged. We welcome complaints that not only point out issues but also recognize any positive interactions, promoting a fair and comprehensive perspective.

A Free and Impartial Platform for Complaints

Our unwavering commitment is to provide a free and unbiased platform for all complaints. Every complaint is given equal importance, ensuring your concerns are heard and respected, irrespective of their nature.